Hurricane Gustav made landfall on the Louisiana coast on Monday, while it appeared that the brunt of the storm was passing to the west of New Orleans, making officials optimistic that the city would be spared destruction on the scale of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
While still powerful, and lashing the Gulf Coast with strong winds and rain, the storm was downgraded from category 3 to category 2, on a scale of 1 to 5, because its winds had slowed to 110 miles an hour from 115 m.p.h., according to the National Weather Service.
Port Fourchon is inaccessible.
Hurricane Gustav has already pushed about three feet of water on Louisiana 1, the only access road to Port Fourchon, the port's director Ted Falgout said.
By 7 a.m. this morning, wind gusts at the port, a major intersection for the offshore petroleum industry and oil imports, had reached 105 mph.
Port Fourchon houses the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, through which about 15 percent of the nation's oil imports. Oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is currently shut-in.
With the only inland road leading to the port flooded, Port Fourchon is inaccessible by land, however, there is no way to tell if the road is damaged.
MSNBC is reporting that waters from Hurricane Gustav, now a Category 2 storm, have overtopped the Industrial Canal barrier in New Orleans.
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